generally don't celebrate my birthdays. It's not that we don't have the money to do so but rather...i don't really know why we don't celebrate it. Right after we came back from Japan my parents decided to celebrate my birthday. We rented seats, cooked food for those who were comingand was really ready for it. The night before I was so excited. Too bad we didn't inform Gringo Honasan, the guy staged a coup d'etat on the same day.
To give you an idea why i was affected by this, i lived right across an army base. my family (my dad is a pastor) lived right across the logistics command center of the largest military camp in the philippines. The logistics command held the ordnance of the Army along with its tanks and howitzers. In a tactical decision to gain supremacy, the rebels decided to bomb this area first.
I woke up on my birthday hearing loud cannon fire on our doorstep. It seems the rebels did not hit the buiding they were supposed to, but seems they hit the surrounding area..meaning places like the one we live in. Thank God we didn't get hurt. Someone knocked on our door and some people asked if the Yard where I was supposed to hold my party could be made into a triage area for the wounded and dying soldiers. You get an idea of my party now? the place where i was supposed to hold my party was full of blood and guts scattered around. As the fighting intensified the combatants knocked on every door asking us to leave. We didn't need to be told twice, We got some stuff and left. Oh boy! those were fun days indeed. Come to think of it, in retrospect, this was probably my most memorable birthday.
Shortly after winning the competition we came home as heroes. The toast of the town so to speak. We actually guested on this famous late night Talk show called MAD - Martin After Dark hosted by none other than Martin Nievera himself. When he asked about what stories we had to tell, this was what I said:
After the competition all the contestants had time to interact with one another. Our moms told us that if we needed more time they'll let us play and we'll just meet in the lobby after an hour. Poor me, it was my first time in a hotel. Both me and my duet partner didn't know what a lobby was. Apparently, so did most Japanese.
The hard thing about Japan is the language barrier. Barely anyone understands you if you speak in English. It's also difficult to know where you are because all the signs are in Japanese.
An hour later it dawned on us that we better find that "lobby". We first asked the front desk/reception, "where is the lobby?" Answered by, "Robby?" She called another person, "Robby, robby (followed by something unintelligible in Japanese )" this person came with much enthusiasm that our hopes were lifted up.
This guy was making some sort of gestures. He appeared to be miming something. All the while he was muttering, "Robby, Robby" it looked to me as if he was eating.
Lightbulb moment - I knew right away he was referring to the food, LOMI or thick noodles. I said, "no I don't want to eat,I want to find this place called Lobby." It seems this did the trick as this long phrase in English was beyond the front desk's ability. They told us to wait as they are calling the hotel interpreter.
We waited for 15 mins and was worried that our moms were looking for us and that we were lost in this place where no one understood us. Finally, a well dressed lady appeared and asked us, "how can I help you?" ( in halting English) we asked, "where is the lobby?" She replied, "oooooh, this IS the lobby" (gesturing with her arms open wide).
The day of competition came and I was reunited with my mother. We were scheduled for a sound check. I did not realize that we will have a full orchestra and a 100 voice choir as accompaniment.
(The pic above is the Bulgarian national chorus but if you exchange them wth Japanese looking people... you get the idea. The scene looks like this in my mind
The competition was held in ocean park Hiroshima. I really wanted to try the rides but instead I had to memorize some Japanese phrases. The interpreter told us the crowd would love it. I was like parrot, I had no idea at all what I was saying. Apparently it worked, the crowd loved it.
The competition came and we were not able to watch the other contestants. In that moment of competition I felt so alive. I actually felt tears welling up as I heard the wonderful sound of the orchestra and choir. Some people say that when they compete in international competitions that they feel the weight of the country's expectations on them. I never felt any of that. It just felt as if I was competing on my own.
Everything after was blur. We were just waiting n the holding area when they called us up. Apparently we won best song and best interpretation of song and they presented us with a large check. I knew we'd finally get that TV I wanted.
Coming into the venue we were in competition mode. In the back of our mind we were kinda worried that the other competitors were so good.
Our practices were already sounding good and our vibratos had already synchronized. We fancied our chances. Truth be told we were miles ahead vocally compared to our competition. We watched as each contestant rehearsed with the live band.
We watched and cringed as the Malaysian child star, cried his way into the performance. His duet partner did not even sing but cried through out the whole song. I thought that was just weird until I found out that it was all part of the music - a child's cry ( song title). If there was a category for best drama they'd win hands down. The others weren't so notable. I did think that the Thai contestant was pretty.
Of the countries we were watching out for, the one we thought was our biggest threat was Indonesia. They came there with their matching red costumes with elaborate dance moves while singing. I thought, this is going to be a toss up between choreo versus vocal prowess.
As we were getting ready to take the stage we were itching for a fight and show up these guys. We then came onstage and belted out our number. The extra adrenaline worked out as we easily hit our high notes. Even the band congratulated us after the rehearsal and we left the whole room buzzing.
Apparently this rattled the Japanese contestant that he didn't want to go onstage anymore and cried while singing. After rehearsals the cute Thai girl came to us and said, "I think you guys are going to win." Deep inside I hoped she was right.
(This is the 14k version with me singing.
In the competition it was just me and Donna Cruz)
My first time abroad was to Japan. At that time no one had any ideas about Japanese culture in the Philippines.
At the young age of 8, I was chosen to be a duet partner for a champion singer. They needed a voice that would blend in and not compete with her voice. To make the story short we won the local competition that served as qualifying for Mermaid International Children's Songfest.
We had a flight to Osaka Japan, stayed there for one night and took a bullet train to Hiroshima.
In Hiroshima I didn't know we'd be distributed to local host families. Everything was lost in translation I guess.
Upon arrival at the house of our host family, we saw a TV crew. We didn't know we'd be televised. and we couldn't understand what they were saying anyway.
With all the cameras in front, bright light, and surrounded by all this camera crew we sat down in this very low table without seats. It was all a disconcerting scene for a kid who has never seen a camera crew before.
Looking at the table, I was not familiar with the food before me. In retrospect they probably served me teriyaki beef or teppanyaki beef. They handed out something foreign to me - chopsticks.
Prior to this, I haven't seen one, and hadn't an inkling or idea how to use it. I was hungry from travel and here was this TV crew filming my attempts together food. I was getting frustrated and with a firm resolve to eat, I skewered the beef with one chopstick.
I was greeted by applause from my hosts and the other film crew. I was there happily chewing my piece of meat as the camera was on me. I wonder what the viewers thought of that.
